Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/9

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

LQX11OX, SATl KDAY, JAKUARi' 7,

C O N T E N T S. -No. ,->4.

FOTBS : Residence Dinners in Durham, 1 Shotley Wills, 2 "Quandari*," 4 -Knights of Windsor "Dogmatism is puppvism full grown" " Prickle-l>*t " Marquis of Salis- bury in Fitzroy Square ' The Northampton Mercury' Deaths of ilie Aged James Clarence Mangin. 5" Betty " Matthew Arnold's ' Horatian Echo ' Millikiii-Entwisle Families, 6.

QUERIES : Plundered Pictures TrtHeton an.l " The Tabor" Marriage Service Bridges, a Winchester Com- moner, 7 Authors of Quotations Wanted St. Anthony of Padua Count A. <0 Bail of Montrose Statue in a Circle of B >oks Walker Family Solitary Mass Statutes of Merton, 8 "Broken heart" Calland C. Hope Weir Horseshoes for Luck Godiva's Birthplace Florida, it.

REPLIES : " Was-ail," 9 Christmas Carols : Waits : Guisers " An o'd woman went to mmket," 10 Bringing in the Yule "Clog" Christmas under Charles I., 11 "Cursals " Pa'rick Bell Mrs. Carey, 12 " He ?aw a world" BirMi at S-a The Mussnk 'Steer to the Nor'- Nor'-West,' 13 "Fortune favours fools" Bananas School Slates Hicha'd of Scotland "Stub" Vincent Stuckey Lean, 11 Inscription 011 Statue of James II. Blake: Norman: Oldmixon Travels in China, ]."" Mr. Pilblister and Betsy hi* sister" Whitsunday Suppres- sion of Duelling in England Angles : England Penny Wares Wanted, 1(5 -Split Innnitive Excavations at Kich- borough Pnrish Clerk, 17 Chiltern Hundreds 'The Death of Nelson,' 18.

KOTKS ON BOOKS: Hakluyfs ' Navigations ' The Stratford-on-Avon Shakespeare 'The Poore's Lamenta- tion for the Death of Queen Elizabeth ' ' Photograms ' 'Clergy Directory' 'Burlington Magazine' Keviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

RESIDENCE DINNERS IN DURHAM.

THERE are very few people now living who remember these once famous entertainments. I was myself a guest at one of the last of them, at the house of Dr. Jenkyns, who died in 1878, the last of the old prebendaries, though I believe he was not quite on the same footing as the older men had been. The following note is based partly on my own recollections, and partly on those of siiy friends Mr. Thomas Jones, of Durham, Proctor and Notary, and the Rev. William Green well, Minor Canon and Rector of St. Mary's in the South Bailey, whose memories of Durham go much further back than mine do.

The Dean and the twelve Prebendaries of the foundation of Queen Mary each kept three weeks of "close residence" in their turns, during which they always slept in their houses in the college, maintained hos- pitality, and attended every service in the cathedral, or, as i j was then commonly called, "the abbey." If they failed to comply with any one of the above customs only once, saving by reason of sickness or some other urgent cause, they began their residence over again. I have understood that Dean

Waddington, having been obliged by the death of a near relation to go away during his close residence, took it again from beginning to end.

During their close residence the Dean and Prebendaries gave " residence dinners," about five or six, or two a week. These were on a very bountiful scale in respect both of meat and of drink, and usually took place at 7 o'clock. At one dinner would be enter- tained nobility and gentry, with members of the Chapter, and the more wealthy of the beneficed clergy ; at another, the Minor Canons, the head master and second master of the Grammar School, the less wealthy beneficed clergy, and professional men ; at another, the Mayor and Corporation, with other citizens ; at another, at 2 P.M., the singing men, with tradesmen, tfec., who always went from the dinner to the after- noon service. And there would be other dinners for guests not easily classified. At some, probably those of the second grade, there would be officials such as the Receiver, the Chapter Clerk, &c. And before the days of railways, when strangers in Durham were few and far between, they came in for their chance. I have heard my father say that once when my grandfather and he were passing through Durham they attended the afternoon service, immediately after which the verger came to them with "Archdeacon Bouyer's compliments, and would they favour him with their company at dinner that evening ? " They gladly accepted the invi- tation. It was a residence dinner, and they met the famous Count Borouwlaski, the Polish dwarf, who then lived in Durham. "The little count" brought his own tiny knife and fork, now in the Durham Uni- versity Museum, and was accommodated with a big book on his chair to raise him to the height of the table. The count was, as usual, very entertaining, the archdeacon very kind and hospitable, and the strangers enjoyed a delightful evening. At the end of dinner came the grace. One chorister, in a brown gown faced with white, attended by the butler with a shilling on a silver waiter, and a wax candle in his hand, read, in English, the first portion of Psalm cxix., " Bead imma- culati," on a monotone. The prebendary said "Tu autem," and the boy went on with "Domine miserere nostri,'' on a monotone which sweetly sounded through the great room. The prebendary then handed the shilling over his left shoulder to the boy,* who descended to the kitchen, where he

I remember the benevolent smile with which Dr. Jenkyns did this.